Chapter 7

Sol Tax: Advocate for Indian Rights and Promoter of AnthropologyThomas Weaver

Anthropology for the World of the Future: Thirteen Professions and Three ProposalsSol Tax

Sol Tax (1907–1995) is best known among applied anthropologists for his development of “action anthropology,” an approach to applied research that involves the subject populations in setting their own goals and actions for change. Tax was trained in anthropology at the University of Chicago, where he spent most of his professional career. He was renowned not only for his scholarly and applied work but also for organizing and facilitating international meetings and publications. In his 1977 Malinowski Award address, Tax called on anthropologists to join together internationally to produce educational and training materials for the human sciences; to create a journal through which thousands of persons with anthropological training but not currently in academic settings could communicate; and to place their skills at the service of indigenous peoples. His talk expressed his passion for anthropology and his belief that the discipline can be used to improve the world.